We Build up Christ and the Church in our Experience to Work out our own Salvation

As believers in Christ, we build up Christ and the church in our experience to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

We work out our own salvation by building up the practical and present Christ as God’s salvation in our experience for the building up of the Body of Christ as the corporate Christ for God’s good pleasure.

As believers in Christ, we need to be one in soul to enjoy Christ; our enjoyment and experience of Christ depend on whether we are one in soul. How can we be one in soul?

All three parts of our soul need to be dealt with and taken care of so that we may be one not only in spirit but also in soul.

It is easy to be one in spirit: we can just exercise our spirit and oneness is there, for we are one spirit with the Lord and also one with one another.

In order for us to be one in soul, we need to deal with our mind, emotion, and will, so that our fallen soul can be renewed, transformed, and balanced. Regarding our mind, we need to think the one thing.

Our mind is focused on so many things, some good and some not-so-good, some spiritual and some not-so-spiritual.

We need to learn to think the one thing, which is the enjoyment and experience of Christ for the church life.

We need to set our mind on our spirit and think the one thing.

Regarding our emotions and inward parts, we need to be one with Christ in His inward parts.

We need to enjoy and experience Christ in His inward parts, and we need to live in the inward parts of Christ.

This means that we need to put on the inward parts of Christ such as inward affection, compassion, tenderheartedness, and forbearance.

We need to learn from the apostle Paul in this matter, for he was one with Christ in His inward parts, and his decisions, movement, and speaking were one with Christ in His inward parts.

May we look intently at the Lord, even behold Him in the index of His eyes in our fellowship with Him, so that we may be infused with Him and have His inward parts as our inward parts.

Regarding the will, we need to allow God to operate in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

Hallelujah, God lives in us and dwells in our inner being, and He operates in us both the willing and the working.

This means that we can simply turn to the Lord and be one with Him, and we can simply cooperate with His inward operation.

He operates in our being, and we cooperate by working out our own salvation.

There is no way for us to subdue our will, for our will is either strong and stubborn, or it is too soft and uncooperative. Oh Lord!

But thank the Lord, the indwelling God energizes us and operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. And we can cooperate with Him.

Build up the Practical and Present Christ into whom we can Enter as God’s Salvation

Our experience of Christ as our life of obedience in order to work out our own salvation is seen in the type of the ark that Noah built.

Today for us to build the ark is to build up the practical and present Christ as God’s salvation in our experience for the building up of the Body of Christ as the corporate Christ for God’s good pleasure (Phil. 2:8, 12-13).

Christ learned obedience by the things He suffered while on earth, and He was obedient to God even unto death, and that the death of the cross.

And He is now in us and His life of submission is for us to experience today. Our experience of Christ as our life of obedience is for us to work out our own salvation day by day.

In the time of Noah, he was saved, for he found favour in the eyes of God and he walked with God.

But he still had to build the ark in order to save himself and his whole family from the coming judgment of God.

What Noah worked on and entered into was God’s salvation, the ark; we should have a practical and present Christ into whom we can enter as God’s salvation.

The ark was Noah’s salvation; we need to build up the present and practical Christ as our salvation into whom we will enter.

We need to build up the practical and present Christ in our experience for the building up of the corporate Christ, which is the reality of the ark.

This is what working out our own salvation means.

The ark, the Christ we build up in our experience, is the built-up church in our experience.

We need to be saved from this crooked and perverted generation by building up the practical and present Christ and by building up the church life so that we may enter into Him and into the church to be saved.

The ark is a type of Christ – not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the church (Gen. 6:14; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:15-16; Col. 3:10-11).

The church, the corporate Christ, is the Body of Christ and the new man.

Noah built the ark and entered into it, and he and his whole family were saved from God’s judgment on that evil generation.

Furthermore, he was separated from that generation and ushered into a new age (Gen. 8:13-29; 1 Pet. 3:20).

Today we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling by building up the present and practical Christ in our experience and by building up the church so that we may enter into God’s salvation.

As believers in Christ, we are saved, but we need to still work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

Noah was saved, for he obtained the testimony that he was pleasing to God, but he still had to build the ark to work out his salvation.

We need to be saved not only from God’s judgment but also from the corrupted world, the evil and perverted generation in which we live today.

May we be obedient and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

The salvation we have received is a vast salvation with a long span; we have entered into the “passage of God’s salvation” and are daily going through this passage by working out our own salvation.

The more we build up the ark in our experience, the more we work out our own salvation.

The more we build up Christ and the church in our experience, the more we work out our own salvation.

Lord Jesus, we want to work out our own salvation by building up the present and practical Christ in our experience today. Amen, Lord, we take You as our life of obedience in order to work out our own salvation. You are our life and our person; we take Your life of obedience in our daily life to build up Christ and the church in our experience. May we all build up the ark today by building up the practical and present Christ as God’s salvation in our experience. Amen, Lord, we want to have a practical and present Christ into whom we can enter as God’s salvation. We want not only to be saved from God’s judgment but also be saved from this crooked and perverted generation by building up Christ and the church in our experience!

Build up Christ and the Church in our Experience to Work out our Salvation and be Ushered into the Age of Millennium

Many Christians think that, as long as they are saved, everything is fine; they are now waiting for the Lord to return and rapture them and bring them to heaven.

But Phil. 2:12-13 says that we need to work out our own salvation.

Just as Noah was saved but still had to build the ark to be saved from God’s judgment and be separated from that evil generation, so today we need to build up Christ and the church to work out our own salvation.

What we are building up today is what we will enter into in the future.

If today we build up Christ in our experience, we will enter into the Christ whom we build up today.

This may sound strange doctrinally but it is right experientially.

We all have Christ, but if we do not abide in Christ and if we don’t experience Christ, how can we enter into Christ in the future?

It is not sufficient just to have Christ in us; we also need to abide in Christ; this requires some building up.

We need to build up Christ and the church in our experience day by day so that we may work out our own salvation.

What does it mean for us to build up Christ? It means that we need to talk to the Lord, call on His name, and live by Him.

Daily we need to enjoy the Lord and fellowship with Him.

We need to take Him as our life and person, and we need to live by Christ.

Throughout the week we need to love the Lord, fellowship with Him, live by Him, and walk together with Him.

Then, when we come together to the Lord’s table meeting and have the prophesying meeting, there will be an overflow of Christ.

If Monday through Saturday we spend time with the Lord to love Him, fellowship with Him, live by Him, and walk together with Him, surely on Lord’s Day we will have the sensation that we are in Christ.

But if we do not contact the Lord throughout the week, when we come to the Lord’s Table meeting, we may have the sensation that the Lord is absent, for He is not with us in our experience.

We may have Christ in doctrine and knowledge but not in experience.

May we not only desire to abide in Christ but practice contacting the Lord, living in the Lord, and abiding in Him throughout the day.

Also, we need to build up the church in our daily life; our daily life needs to be not only individually but also corporately, in the church and with the saints.

On one hand, we need to contact the Lord and learn to live one spirit with Him; this is on the personal side.

On the other hand, we need to contact the saints and fellowship with them, even visit them in their homes and have home meetings in our home; this is on the corporate side.

By building the church and entering into the church life through building up the practical and present Christ as God’s salvation in our experience, we will be saved from God’s judgment on today’s evil generation through the great tribulation (Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27; 1 Thes. 5:3).

We will be separated from that generation (Luke 21:36; Rev. 3:10) and we will be ushered into a new age, the age of the millennium.

How can we be separated from this evil and perverted generation? It is by working out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

How do we work out our own salvation? It is by building up the practical and present Christ and by building up the church as the Body of Christ in our experience.

How do we build up Christ in our experience? It is by contacting the Lord, enjoying Him, having fellowship with Him, praying to Him, and living in Him and by Him.

Also, we build up the church as an anti-testimony to this generation; we build up Christ and the church in our experience to work out our own salvation today.

Lord Jesus, we want to build up Christ and the church in our experience so that we may work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Amen, Lord, show us how to build up Christ and the church in our experience so that we may work out our own salvation! We want to spend time every day to love the Lord, fellowship with Him, live by Him, and walk together with Him. Amen, Lord, keep us in fellowship with You today. Keep us enjoying You and living in You today. Save us from not contacting You day by day. We just want to abide in You and be found in You. We want to be with You and in You in our experience. We want to build up Christ and the church in our experience day by day so that Christ and the church would become our practical salvation!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1983, vol. 2, “The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity,” chs. 2-3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 3, entitled, Being One in Soul to Enjoy Christ by Thinking the One Thing, by Being One with Christ in His Inward Parts, and by Allowing God to Operate in Us the Willing and the Working for His Good Pleasure.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, we would our every thought be captured / By the rich enjoyment in Your Word. / In it we’re supplied, our mind there will abide, / Till our thoughts are wholly sanctified. / Let’s keep practicing the application / Of this life by minding just the Son. / Praise Him for the way to live by Him today! / Lord, on You our minds will ever stay. (Hymns #1193 stanzas 6-7)
  – When Noah worked upon the ark as God to him decreed. / So many others watched, yet to his words they gave no heed. / But Noah heard the voice of God and did His word obey; / His business was to build the ark; he couldn’t waste a day. / Now Jesus’ testimony, we in the churches see / The ark of testimony built in each locality. (Hymns #1268 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Seeking of this age to taste, / And of it have a part. / If we only knew, dear Lord, / The ways we grieve Your heart. / We would come and turn to You / With a repenting heart, / And would give ourselves to be / With you, O Lord, inside the Ark. / Praise You Lord, we’re safe in You; / Outside death-waters pour. / Many things that I once loved / Are on the ocean floor. / Keep us open to You Lord, / Don’t let us miss the mark. / Hallelujah, praise the Lord, / We’re here within the church, the Ark. (Song on, Dearest Lord, You’ve called us here, stanzas 2-3)